Faculty Nibble Few Dining Hall Meals

Despite a new program to bring professors into the undergraduate dining halls, most Harvard teaching staff are still missing out on the opportunity to enjoy General Wong's chicken.

Early last month, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 announced that Faculty would be able to swipe their cards for free meals when they accompany students in the undergraduate dining halls.

The program has been in place for nearly a month now, but so far few students and their teachers have taken advantage of it.

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According to Ted A. Mayer, director of Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS), card readers in the houses have been programmed to accept Faculty cards since Feb. 12. Between then and Feb. 26, only 11 Faculty with new privileges had swiped their cards.

By comparison, 22 students used an older system of obtaining meal vouchers from University Hall, the process for students to invite a faculty-member to a meal that the swipe privileges are intended to replace on a trial basis.

Michael D. Shumsky '00, a student representative to the Committee on House Life, which conceived the new program, says that while the results are lower than anticipated, they represent an improvement.

"That's obviously a small number of the total Faculty--it's not the response that we hoped for--but it is a significant increase over last year," Shumsky says.

He explains that he views the problem to be an information gap--students and their teachers don't know about the new plan. To solve the problem, he says the Undergraduate Council plans to get the message out.